I’ve been neglecting my blog lately…obscene amounts of sickness in the house plus a wedding in the immediate family hasn’t left time for much.  So it has been awhile since I finished Magic or Madness, but maybe that will help.

I find myself just not excited about this particular title now that the time to blog is here.  It had a lot of promise for me, but I felt as if almost nothing actually happened in the book.  But, of course, this is a trilogy.

Reason and her mother have been on the run all of Reason’s life–on the run from Esmeralda, Reason’s evil grandmother.  Then one day they get caught, and Reason has to go live with the evil witch, reputed to kill cats and practice magic.  Now Reason has to confront her family history, a history that dictates a choice: either use your magic and die young (20 years old, Esmeralda is hanging on at about 45) or go mad (which is what has happened to Reason’s mother).

The idea that the use of magic has a price and a consequence is really cool.  The doorway between New York City and Sydney is never explained, and the final confrontation was frankly lame.   I’m not going to keep reading this particular fantasy trilogy, although I truly did enjoy the main trio of magical teens.  Just not for me.

I love when a reoccurring character is a one-eyed alligator with a taste for people.

I’ve been a big fan of Jennifer Crusie since I read Welcome to Temptation in library school for my romance novel in Reader’s Advisory.  I now advise anyone going on a trip to bring some Crusie along, with the caveat that it has hot sex in it, making it an excellent beach read.

Now Crusie is partnering with Bob Mayer.  Their previous novel, Don’t Look Down, was fab, and so is this one.  Basically, Agnes is a food columnist trying to put on a wedding.  Shane is a hitman who kills people.  Someone tries to steal Agnes’s dog, Shane gets called by his uncle to keep an eye on Agnes.  Dead bodies and hot sex ensue, along with the usual wit and hilarity found in any Crusie novel.  Now, I’ve never read any Mayer beyond his association with Crusie, but I just know the body count and ‘guy stuff’ (Shane’s POV) are him, and it is fab.

Crusie’s novels have always had an element of intrigue or mystery, so Crusie fans won’t be bent out of shape by this partnership, in fact, I think they will be durn pleased.  Mayer’s fans?  Dunno, but I think guys should read more romance novel hot sex (the smart kind, the Crusie kind) and learn something.  Yes, this book is also educational!

There is also nothing like lifting weights during the intimate encounters!  Audiobooks are great.  *sigh*

Mara is escaping north to the unknown with her friends the Treenesters and Rowan, her childhood friend.  Along the way, tragedy strikes the Gypsea city, and Tuck is thrust into a war and a new world he could never imagine.  Fox has been left behind in the city his grandfather built, determined to fight the good fight, tell the truth to all those that live in comfort and bring humanity back to compassion.

It is a lot for one book, for sure.  But Bertagna takes us there and back quickly, confidently, and without making me pause to think “nope.  not believable.”  As Mara discovers the truth of the horror that occurred on Earth, and has left humanity fragmented into various barbaric and primitive groups, it feels a very real possibility.

Luckily, a third book is in the works.  Zenith wraps up enough here, leaves us satisfied, but with enough story to tell that makes me want more.

I would also like to not that I finished this book while quite feverish…

http://www.wleaders.com/pigtest/piggiedance.html

3 Willows by Ann Brashares

And then Brashares brought us a new series!  More great sisterhood!  No pants!

What results is a nice middle grade friendship novel.  Definitely starting off for a younger crowd than the original sisterhood, Polly, Jo and Ama are friends that have drifted apart and spend life-changing summers trying to reconcile reality with their dreams and their idea of what life should be like, not what it gives them.

It was a nice book to listen to, I didn’t feel the urgency I did with the first few Sisterhood books.  Give it to middle school girls looking for stories about friendship.

I have long been intrigued by the S.A.S.S. (Students Across Seven Seas) series, and when a book about my beloved Finland came out in the series, I knew we needed to meet.

And we finally did.  Mo Clark is escaping to the S.A.S.S. program in Finland (Suomi) to participate in the ski jumping program–a sport that does not allow female ski jumpers in the Olympics or many other major events.  Escaping from what?  Her super famous skiing family.  So when she gets there and everybody knows her name…well…she is going to make the best of it.  The hostility of her host-sister combined with the hot Roma boy, Leevi, complicates Mo’s dreams of ski jumping dominance.

I thought this was pretty decent world travelling chick-lit.  It didn’t glorify the Finnish people too much, playing upon the progessive countries prejudices against the Roma people.  However, it did point out Finnish Sisu, and told enough about Finnish history to make me happy.  Heck, they even visited an iittala shop, and my friends all know how I love the iittala.  Anywho, it was a fun read with some good cultural seriousness involved.

Also, I had no idea that women’s ski jumpers were not included in the Olympics, and they were petitioning for inclusion and got told NO.  Check it out here.  Reminiscient of how women’s softball got thrown off the roster.

Well, I’m off to ski jump on my new WiiFit.  It arrived yesterday.  And let me tell you, I’m a natural.  Must be the Finn in me!

Absolutely, Positively Not…by David LaRochelle

My bookclub reads teen novels, and every month we have a theme from which I put together five suggestions and the group votes on which one to pick.  Absolutely, Positively Not… was the winner of the GLBTQ theme for the month of February.

Oh, and we all loved it.  One of us even read it twice.  It was generally agreed upon that the book combined angst with humor, and didn’t make being gay into a big-time dramarama, but a natural part of a character’s life that could be dealt with without too much, well, crap.

Steven is just a regular sixteen year old kid living in Beaver Lake, MN.  He wants to get his driver’s license, get along with his parents, hang out with his best friend Rachel, and has a crush…on the new male health teacher.  However, Steven is absolutely positively sure he is not gay and is going to prove it to himself.  But not on Tuesdays, because he has square dancing.

Hilarious and heartwarming, Rochelle’s novel gives us an authentic look at a kid coming out after struggling with his own feelings and then with those of his friends and family.  A little campy at times, this humorous tale avoids the hystrionics of some GLBTQ teen lit and faces the issues honestly and truthfully.  A fantastic book for all teens.  Plus, due to a total lack of anything graphic, a great title to sneak into more conservative collections that need to provide teens with a look into GLBTQ issues.

Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie

I do love the trashy romance.  The thing with Jennifer Crusie is, even her early Harlequin types, are wittier and funnier than the average trashy romance.

I use the term trashy with great respect, too, people.

Lucy is ditching her husband Bradley when somebody starts shooting at her.  On the scene, and trying to hunt down another Bradley, is police officer and hunk, Zack.  Naturally, he has to move in with her to protect her since she won’t leave her dogs.

Not one of her absolute best, this was still a solid beach or Sunday afternoon read.

Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

This was not a book I enjoyed listening to. The narrator sounded too young at times…perhaps because I found the character of Sonia Rodriguez exasperating and irritating, wise beyond her years and yet dumb, dumb, dumb.

Anyway, Sonia is a Mexican-American high school student, determined to be the first in her family to graduate high school.  But, of course, all sorts of stereotypical Mexican-American family members stand in her way.

This is basically the story.  Very Ragged Dick, Sonia pulls herself out of the mire and conquers all.  That is truly great, but I found the tone of the book to be way too didactic, and too much telling, not showing.  And then waaaaay too happy in a quick happy-ending.

Maybe if Sonia had come to her own rescue instead of letting all the good men do it for her, I would have been less irritated.  Perhaps if I hadn’t been told what racial stereotypes exist in America and just let them play out before me, I wouldn’t have rolled my eyes.  Perhaps showing me the injustices of the system against Sonia and her family instead of having Sonia spell them out…yeah.  Teen readers are way smarter than the author is giving them credit for.

So I’d like Sonia Rodriguez to have a little re-write, because I believe the heart of the story has potential.  Show me the life of an inner-city Latina girl rising above all Ragged Dick-style!

Also, I was promised ‘strong language and adult situations’ on the back of the audiobook.  This book is definitely for high schoolers, but not objectionable.  Recorded Books must be just covering their butts, or it is a great way to get teens to listen!

Visceral.  Raw.  Haunting.  Amazing.

These are some of the words that come to mind when I think of my experience reading Wintergirls, Anderson’s latest and perhaps greatest YA novel to date.  I told a coworker that if she thought Speak was powerful, she was going to find this novel even more moving…and devastating.  I also told her it was not an appropriate beach or airplane read.

Lia is anorexic.  She eats enough to keep herself out of treatment, keeps the calories under 500 a day if no one forces her to eat.  She loves her stepsister and lives with her dad and stepmom.  Lia avoids her surgeon mother.

Lia’s former best friend, Cassie, called her thirty-three times on a Saturday night.  On Sunday, Cassie’s body is found alone in a motel room.  Cassie and Lia were like sisters, and Cassie’s death triggers Lia’s anorexia and other risky behaviors as she struggles to deal with the horrible truth: Lia didn’t answer the phone when Cassie needed her.  And now Cassie is haunting Lia.

A raw journey into the horror of an eating disorder and more, Wintergirls made me physically uncomfortable as I watched Lia starve herself to be thin.  Not just to be thin–to feel pain, to feel alive.  A beautiful, yet ugly novel about a subject I will never understand fully, but with Lia, I have a new sense of what it means to die to be thin, beautiful, to feel alive.

If you read one teen anorexia book in your life, let it be Wintergirls.  The rest pale in comparison.

Also, look for this at award time next January.  I am going to have a hard time finding anything as amazing.